Untitled Challenge Fic
by sychofrantic
Summary: This is an old one, written around season… three, but no real relevance to that. A Chlex futurefic based on a challenge that I don't really remember, other than a horrible secret had to be revealed.


**Untitled Old Challenge Fic**

This is an old one, written around season… three, but no real relevance to that.

A Chlex futurefic based on a challenge that I don't really remember, other than a horrible secret had to be revealed. Enjoy (if possible).

/

Chloe looked at the piece of paper in her hands, at first glanced over carelessly, presumed to be scrap, when her eyes caught on Lex's name. She read it and she re-read it. She looked back to the spot where it was placed by the door, her gaze accusing, as if _it_ was somehow responsible for what was written plainly, in black and white, right in front of her.

The air cooled around her as she took a calming breath, reading it over once more and willing herself to be wrong. For it to just be a huge misunderstanding or a mistake, like it was so often was with them. But there weren't any conclusions to jump to, conclusions were staring Chloe right in the face and all she could do was wish them away.

There was Lex's signature. It was loopy to the point of pretentiousness, and Chloe had told him often.

"It's a girly signature, Lex," she'd complained, holding it up close, "It looks like Lana threw up on it."

His nose had wrinkled in distaste, "Chloe," he reproved, "Please don't say her name while I'm naked."

She giggled, shoving the cheque back at him, "I'm just saying it's a very feminine signature. And it looks like you're over-compensating for something."

He shrugged, putting the piece of paper on their bedside table, "I've had it since I was a child."

"You had a signature like that when you were a child?" she said with incredulity, "No wonder you're so weird."

"I'm the weird one?" he said, his tone matching hers before he switched to falsetto, "Oh Lex, don't talk about Lana that way! She's like a sister to me!"

"I don't sound like that!" she shrieked, smacking him on the shoulder, "My voice is alluringly husky!"

"Husky, sure, you're a regular Barry White."

"It is!" she squeaked, pouncing on him but finding him unmoveable, "It was enough to get you into bed."

"Honey, looking at me cross-eyed is enough to get me into bed. Especially with that body."

Chloe leaned up and kissed him, her naked body settling warm over his. He pulled back and took her face in his hands.

"Congratulations."

She shuddered at the memory, its sweetness stinging her. That was the day she had gotten the job. Tears burned her eyes and the contract crumpled within her fist. Oh God, she'd been so happy, so happy to finally do something on her own, she made it to the top all by herself.

In the past, climbing the proverbial ladder had always been made easier by others. There was Clark, who would carry her up it, Lana, who would shout instructions from the sidelines, her dad, who would pull her up, one rung at a time and then Lex, who would pay someone to install an escalator.

'Not this, not _this_,' she moaned sarcastically to herself. She'd do this without help from anyone. She'd make editor of the Daily Planet if it killed her. Sadly, she wasn't far off the mark.

"I have to make editor, Lex," she'd said, in a fit of stress while she redesigned the layout for the fifth time, "I have to, this is my last chance, I have to…"

Last chance? Ridiculous, she was only a child then. They'd been stupid, desperate words. Words that too much caffeine, too little sleep and too much competitiveness had inspired. But he'd heard them. Loud and clear. But at the time his only response had been a short neck massage and a reassuring 'You will'.

He was right, she did the following week. And he knew. He knew too fucking well and now, as she looked at the contract, she knew why. This stupid bit of paper said it all, and the rest rushed back with startling clarity.

Quincy Higgins, the former editor of the Daily Planet, saying 'Well done' and shaking her hand with a sour look on his face.

The rest of the staff avoiding her, and saying as little as possible during meetings.

Perry White's unexplained disappearance two weeks later.

Lex's smug look when she told him the news.

She squeezed her eyes shut, trying not to see it, until it was all she could see. His face. This lie. Her whole career, her whole life, was a lie.

"Chloe? Are you home?"

Her eyes snapped open and a sort of numb blankness filled her, her fist tightening around the already crumpled sheet.

"Chloe…" Lex repeated, getting closer.

Her knuckles faded into the white paper.

"Are you okay?" he asked, now only inches from her.

"Am I okay?" she echoed, her voice hoarse, before her hand drew back of its own violation and flew forward, hitting Lex's jaw with a disturbingly satisfying thump. He said a pained 'oof' before stumbling back and dropping his briefcase.

"What do you think?" she snarled.

/

"I'm sorry Chloe, but he was going to give the job to White!"

"He should have!" she screamed, "He had more experience, he was better than me, Lex, he deserved it!"

"He was a washed-up old hack," Lex spat.

"He wanted his life back on track, Lex. This was his only chance. You stole something from him."

"You wanted it Chloe," he said, "You wanted it badly."

"So it's my fault?" she whispered.

His face softened, "No, it's me, I… shouldn't have done it.'

"Well, what a fine concession," she said sarcastically, shoving the damaged contract at him, "You threatened Quincy, Lex, you blackmailed all of them and god only knows how you got rid of Perry." Much to her chagrin, tears once again threatened to rise but she blinked them back furiously.

He swallowed, "I…"

"I don't want to know."

The silence was unbearable, and a growl rose up in Chloe's throat, "No, tell me. Tell me, I do want to know, tell me everything. Start with telling me…" her breathing hitched and she let the tears come, "Tell me how can you tell me you love me, how can you make love to me, and then lie to my face? Tell me Lex, tell me!"

"I never lied," he said thickly, his eyes dark.

"Every moment you looked at me, any time you were with me… when you touched me, and didn't tell me, you lied."

"I did it for you!" he burst out, throwing the contract aside, "It doesn't matter anymore, you have the job and it's yours and no one can take it. You've done well, Chloe, you've succeeded. Why isn't that enough?"

She was shocked into silence for a moment, before her shoulders slumped, "The end justifies the means, is that it?"

She watched the muscles stir in his jaw and he said nothing.

"That's the devil's argument, Lex."

He snapped, hand shooting out to hit an almost-empty decanter of brandythat smashed on the floor, "You're happy, don't deny you're happy. You have everything you ever wanted easily and you didn't question it. You knew something was wrong and you did nothing. That's because you love it, you loving having it so easily, so don't go acting like you're above this devil, sweetheart."

Chloe felt like she just got slapped, and she leant against the wall. When had this happened? Had this been going on around her, all this time, and she just didn't see? Was she too wrapped up in herself to notice that Lex had become this? That she had become this?

Lex was there in a second, his arms wrapped around her, "I'm sorry honey, I'm sorry. I didn't mean it, it was all a mistake. A huge mistake. You know you deserved it, it was always…"

"How can I believe a word you say?" she asked him tiredly, gently pushing him off. She looked down at her rumpled Versace suit and grimaced. It would have to do, for now.

"Where are you going?" he asked shakily.

"I don't know. Somewhere, anywhere, I have to think."

"Think about what."

"Me. Us, mostly me though, I haven't done that in awhile," she smiled at him for the first time since he got home, and he turned away like it burned him.

"You're making a mistake," he said quietly, wandering over to his desk, head hung low.

She shrugged, using her hands to ruffle her immaculate hairdo, "It's not the first, won't be the last. But it'll be mine, can you understand that?"

He snorted, in a way that suggested he was either mocking her or no, he didn't understand that. Either way, Chloe didn't care.

"I'll be seeing you."

She stepped outside and inhaled. It tasted like relief and freedom and newly cut grass, potential and potential rain and everything Chloe had forgotten until now.

"I'll be seeing you," she repeated, before closing her eyes and jumping off the proverbial ladder for the last time.

The End.


End file.
